Essex Wildlife Trust, Abbotts Hall Farm, Gt Wigborough, Colchester, Essex CO5 7RZ
Urban foxes
First issue May 1997
For a printable (PDF) version click here
The urban fox is just the same as a country fox except that it has chosen to set up home in the town. Foxes, being adaptable and enterprising animals, colonised towns in the inter-war years as suburbs sprang up in once rural areas and as our growing prosperity meant that they could find enough food there to raise their families.
Behaviour
Foxes usually hunt alone but live in family groups consisting of a dog fox plus a vixen and a litter of up to 4 cubs per year, often with one or two more vixens - usually daughters or sisters of the mother vixen - helping to raise the family. In towns their commonest breeding site is under a garden shed.
Foxes are larger than domestic cats, and the dog fox is larger than the vixen. They are territorial animals, hunting and scavenging throughout their chosen path and defending it against other fox intruders. Like many territorial animals they mark their territory with signals that other foxes will recognise, such as by leaving their droppings in prominent positions. Again like many territorial predators, their numbers vary to suit the conditions they face. So, for example, if fox numbers are reduced through culling or hunt, more young survive to compensate for the losses.
In towns about one third of their diet consists of food they have scavenged, either from our garbage or put out for them specially (as many people do). The balance is made up of rats, mice, feral pigeons, rabbits and other small animals that they have hunted, augmented by worms and insects. At certain times of the year berries can form a major part of their diet: at blackberry time for example their droppings are full of blackberry seeds.
Foxes and human health
Foxes suffer from most of the same diseases as dogs. It is not known whether they communicate diseases to dogs or vice versa and there is no evidence that they pass any of these diseases on to people.
Fortunately rabies has not yet reached the British Isles (and it is important to take every possible step to prevent this), but if it were to then foxes would represent a potential threat to human health, directly because a bite from a rabid fox could pass the disease to a person, and indirectly because they might communicate rabies to domestic pets.
If rabies does cross the Channel, however, the Trust would not support wholesale eradication of the fox, which plays a vital role in keeping down populations of pests like rats. Rabies is long established in the fox population on the continent and the problem is now being managed effectively by inoculating foxes against the disease by putting out treated bait. We believe this is both a more humane approach than wholesale culling and less likely to have adverse side-effects.
Possible problem with urban foxes
Will they attack our household pets?
Foxes will normally steer well clear of cats, which are more often attacked by dogs than by foxes. But they will take pet rabbits or guinea pigs, given half a chance, so it is important to enclose small pets like these securely at night.
Why do they keep digging up the garden?
Foxes dig up lawns and beds for worms and insect larvae. This can be a nuisance, but remember that they also keep rat and rabbit populations down which can be an even greater nuisance. They may also dig holes to store small animals, coming back later to dig up and eat the food, quite unconcerned if it is rotten and worm-eaten.
It is also quite natural for foxes to dig up buried pets, which from their point of view is just a waste of good meat. This is very difficult to stop, however deep you bury the body.
If foxes raise their young in or near your garden, the young foxes may flatten areas in their play, but this will stop towards the end of the summer as they grow up.
Do they interfere with dustbins or bin bags?
If they are hungry enough foxes will take food from wherever they can find it, but it is probable that dustbins and bin bags are raided more often by cats or dogs than by foxes. The best way to prevent this from happening is to make sure that the dustbin lid is secure and not leave bin bags out overnight.
The cubs first emerge from the earth
Cubs learn through play and start to eat solid food
The cubs start to forage for themselves and to sleep apart from the adults; by now they are as big as their parents
Foxes defend their territories as the mating season approaches
How to help urban foxes
If you find an injured or a sick fox, perhaps lying up in cover, you should only take it in for treatment as a last resort. This immediately places the animal under great stress and, when it has recovered and is ready to be released back into the wild, a fresh problem arises. If it has been away for more than a short time it is very likely to have lost its territory and its place in a family group, and as a result may find it very difficult to re-establish itself.
Foxes do have great powers of recovery though, and an inured animal may just need time to build up its strength. In that case, the best way to help is to put out food where the animal can easily reach it. If you think an animal is seriously injured, then the best course is to seek advice from a local vet.
It is also best not to interfere if you find one or more 'abandoned' cubs. The only exception is when they are under immediate threat, such as from local dogs, then you should move them to a place of safety until dusk then put them back where they were found. The vixen often leaves her cubs for long periods while she forages for food, and if the cubs are quiet this is almost certainly the situation. If you find a single cub it may be lost and its mother will eventually hear its calls and come to collect it. If genuinely orphaned, cubs may be taken over by other members of the family group; and they will face the same problems of finding a territory if you take them in and care for them.
For the same reason, it is not a kindness to trap urban foxes and release them in the countryside.